GAUVIN: Split the vote, keep the gridlock; thatís no way to go in trying times

Written by Paul Gauvin

June 01, 2012

Republican U. S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democrat challenger Elizabeth Warren are said to be running “neck-and-neck,” according to the latest poll taken by the Suffolk University/WHDH-TV team.

If one were writing this opinion for a supermarket tabloid, one could fudge it a bit and say they are “necking” and thus be able to compete for attention with saucy Clinton-Lewinsky and Edwards-Hunter affairs that seem to attract more public curiosity than jobs and the economy - to the point that the drooling media ought be charged with verbal voyeurism.

What is important for Barnstable about this race is to consider how vital the Kennedy political empire and former Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill’s Beltway fiefdom was for the development of the Cape. The National Seashore comes to mind while an effort is under way to name a Seashore visitor center after O’Neill is drawing its share of critics. Oh well, people forget.

Some misguided voters are already considering a vote for Obama and one for Brown as some sort of balancing act. That kind of thinking would only insure continued gridlock. Better to vote Romney and Brown or Obama and Warren to get things rolling again, one way or the other. Gridlock is fine in good times (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), but that is not the case now, is it?

The Seashore alone should remind us that more good things happen via like-mindedness and accord than by conflict. It is hard to imagine that Democrat President Obama and Republican Speaker Boehner could get anything of import done simply because they have contradicting partisan ideas on how to do it. Break it down to a common denominator: The husband wants to buy a Honda Pilot and the wife wants a Chrysler convertible. They argue without finding compromise because there is no such thing as an 8-seat SUV convertible. (Listen up, Detroit). Meanwhile the old car keeps taking a beating, they pour good money after bad into repairs and remain at rancorous odds to the point of marital dysfunction.

That’s the current situation in the Washington Household. The place is absolutely impaired by an unwillingness to cooperate and compromise. Voters showed their displeasure in polls by giving Congress a historically low favorability rating of 13 percent last January vs. a high 84 percent disapproval rating – with the Republican side coming in at 21 percent disapproval vs. 33 percent disapproval for Democrats.

Again in March, Americans continued to be highly critical of Congress’ negative work ethic, with 12 percent approving and 82 percent disapproving in Gallup's March 8-11 poll. Congress' rating has been 15 percent or below since last August, including 10 percent in February, the all-time low rating in Gallup records.

Here’s the kicker, though. What the voters are really saying is that they disapprove of themselves. They wonder why they keep sending delegates who disappoint or agents of intractability, particularly in the last House elections that threw the Tea Party monkey wrench in the gears of compromise while the people were drowning in an underwater economy.

If voting for a congress were homework, Congress itself would give voters an F–minus and that would likely include the Barnstable platoon that elected Brown to replace the iconic Kennedy just to prove they can make a thoughtless choice. Now there’s Brown, who fancies himself as independent because he votes (eenie, meanie, minie, moe) with one party or the other on any given issue. He wants voters to believe he can stay aloof from his party’s leadership, woo Democrats with a smile and actually get things done for the district. Dream on. His latest TV ad mentions “working together” to get things done, but has not so far rallied himself and his party into “working together” with the guys and gals on the other side of the aisle.

Barnstable voters – who gave Brown 68 percent of their election votes – need to understand that it takes a lot longer to lose weight than to gain it. Similarly, it took a decade of shenanigans in and out of government to cause the recession, and nobody could have turned it around any faster than is currently the case.

Voters will do themselves no good if they allow a Republican pack of incalcitrant bulldogs to rend the GOP and its traditions of compromise, decimate oversight of Wall Street, shred the health care reforms like an old shoe before they have a chance to work, insist that we neglect the most vulnerable by emaciating funding for social programs, fight to the death before allowing billionaires to pay one more cent in taxes and last but not least, as it relates to the Brown-Warren choice, let deregulated banks once again lord it over Joe Sixpack with impunity.

Warren, a picture of genteel femininity, has a black belt in consumer protection and has already put banks on the canvas in her defense of the consumer. Town voters who were simply tired of Democratic control of the Senate seat by the durable Kennedy need to get over it. Obama doesn’t need criticism. He needs help in the Congress.